


Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi

by Glade



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Autistic Luna Lovegood, Black Hermione Granger, Gen, Mirror of Erised
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-06-09 22:19:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15277389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glade/pseuds/Glade
Summary: What do people see when they look in the mirror of Erised? Let's find out...





	Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi

Hermione Granger

Hermione found the mirror during her fifth year. Ron and Harry hadn’t wanted to go back down the trapdoor in the third floor, but she could by then cast a specific enough summoning charm to get the correct key, and Ron had played chess for her against McGonagall’s challenge. She wasn’t sure what she had expected going through the black flames but they were just the same as going back four years had been.

She drew in a final large breath before stepping around to see what the mirror would show her. Her parents, their memories returned to them, smiling proudly at her as she was sworn in as Minister for Magic, wasn’t much of a surprise, and neither was Ron’s rather exuberant applause but the children he had surrounding her caused her to choke as she forgot how breathing worked for a second. She looked them over more carefully, curious about the precise details of potential children, but the only obvious details were that they were (probably) not genetically related to either of them; one was blonde and the other two a pair of twins, their skin too pale and creamy to be related to freckly Ron and her black-skinned self. She sat down and stared at the scene for an age, before coming back to herself with a start when a patronus- Harry’s, she noted absently arrived in a gradual lightening of the room. “Are you done yet? Everyone’s getting nervous about where you’ve gone off to,” Harry’s voice asked. She sighed, stood and nearly fell over again as her legs gave way.

 

Remus Lupin

Remus found the mirror one lonely night in seventh year, when James had Head Boy duties, Peter had detention and Sirius still wasn’t forgiven for the whomping willow incident. He had found himself wandering along a particular corridor on the seventh floor, wishing he could have a _fucking break_ from all the insanity of his friendships falling apart, the stress of the NEWTS, the pain of the last full moon only a few days ago, and a door suddenly appeared. He stared at the door for a few seconds, before shrugging and opening the door. The room inside was almost completely empty, except for a glowing mirror facing away from the door. Remus entered the room, and walked around the mirror, admiring the gilt edging, and raising an eyebrow at the rather obvious _mirror writing_ declaring the mirror as a massive liar. Not that he really cared at this point, he just wanted a brief escape from reality. He looked into the mirror. 

The first thing he noticed was the full moon, and he flinched from it before remembering that the real full moon had been a few days ago. The moon was shining onto the side of a cutaway house, revealing a  werewolf and a large black dog sleeping peacefully on a large bed. In another room, James and Lily slept together, with a baby in a small crib next to them. A third room revealed Peter sleeping peacefully surrounded by hundreds of stuffed animals.  He stare d , entranced at the peaceful scene for an eternity, tears pouring unnoticed down his face. To be in werewolf form, but  _peaceful_ , he had never allowed himself to consider such a thing. And to be spending the rest of his life with his friends...it was more than he could ever hope for. He glanced up at the writing around the edge of the mirror, and had to blink to get the last few unshed tears out of his eyes before he could read it again.  More than he could hope for, but not  beyond what his heart could want, he thought with a wry grin. He turned back to the mirror, and clasped a hand to his eyes as he saw what the werewolf and the dog were up to. Maybe...he thought slowly...maybe he could hope for this, maybe it wasn’t beyond the reach of the only Hogwarts taught werewolf in Britain. Maybe he could hope, and plan, and want more than the bare minimum from everyone else. He glanced up at the cursive writing again, and grinned. Then he ran for the door,  hip  pain forgotten in the excitement . He had some apologising to Sirius to do.

 

Hagrid

It wasn’t often Hagrid entered the castle; he had always been more fond of the sky and strong winds than castle walls and candles, but Albus has asked him to do a job- just a small, trifling thing. Just move a mirror over the Christmas break while most of the students were out. And thanks to his _parentage_ he would be less susceptible to its effects. He found the room it was in easily enough, and the mirror was easy enough to identify; the bright silver light coming from it was as much as a giveaway as the large ornate frame surrounding it. He picked it up without looking in it, and as he glanced down to check his hand placement he was caught in the image.  It was him, petting a dragon which stuck its nose under hid hand to demand more. A few seconds later, he walked around to the side of the dragon and mounted it, buckling himself in and adjusting some straps before the dragon leapt into the air with a powerful surge of its wings. He blinked and came back to himself. Muttering under his breath about mirrors that felt very highly of themselves, he got a better grip and started walking towards the third floor corridor, mentally preparing a short tune to whistle for Fluffy.

 

Luna

Luna found the mirror as she wandered around one night, trying to find all the pieces of her uniform before the next day of classes. She walked along a particular seventh floor three times, deep in thought about her need to find things, and a door appeared next to her. Expecting something to happen, she didn’t jump, but instead smiled strangely and entered the room. It was covered in things people had forgotten accidentally (this was, after all, the room for people to find things, not lose them, and if you lose something deliberately you generally don’t want to find it again), and along one wall was a mirror, which glowed silver, both in light at to her ability to sense magic. Whatever the mirror was, it was very powerful, and she approached it carefully, not wanting to get caught in its web of power until she knew what nature the trap would take. Carefully not glancing into the mirror itself, she examined the frame, and the lettering carved into the top. Deciphering the words was easy for someone who regularly found it easier to read backwards, and she chewed her lip while she thought. Did she want to see her deepest desire? Yes, she decided, she did want to know what her deepest desire was. She looked. It was...grey. Not uniformly grey, she realised after a few seconds of study, more the varying grey of thunderclouds. She could almost feel the soothing raindrops falling on her outstretched arms and she raised them, starting to twirl the way she always did in the rain, arms rising and falling in time with the magic in the atmosphere. She felt the Hogarts magic brush against her, not the jarring experiences she was used to outside this strange, wonderful room, but like a cat coming to say hello, and a few seconds later she was dancing under her own private thundercloud. She could feel the rain washing the stress of the last few days away, leaving her feeling wonderfully calm, calm and ready to go back out and face the world again. Reluctantly she turned towards the door, and felt the magic of the room stroke her magic one last time in invitation to return whenever she felt the need.

 

Draco Malfoy

Draco...Draco finds the room, and the mirror a few days before Harry does, the day before he has to catch the train back to Malfoy Manor for the Yule celebrations. He finds the mirror, and looks, unsurprised to not be seeing his reflection- few things in the Wizarding World are as they seem, after all. But what Draco does see is more concerning. He sees his father—Lord Malfoy, he corrects himself instantly—looking at he, Draco, like he is proud of his only son. As though Draco has finally worked out how he should behave, and doesn’t need the _correction_ his fa—Lord Malfoy is particularly fond of. In fact, Draco realises, leaning forward to better see, that damned cane is nowhere to be seen. A second later, his mother enters the scene, and his—Lord Malfoy smiles benevolently and looks over as mirror Draco runs over to her and she swings him up onto her shoulders. Draco tries breathing in,  and is surprised to discover that his nose is blocked and he’s been crying for a few minutes now. But Draco doesn’t have a kindly, smiling, eye-twinkling Headmaster to gently guide him onto the Light path, so he has to do it himself. Slowly, agonisingly, he drags his eyes from the vision of the perfect family and breathes, getting himself back under control. When he is sure that the crying has finished and won’t come back, he stands, brushing the creases from his robes and leaves the room without looking back. Wishing for what can’t be won’t help, he has the Yule celebrations to survive.

 

Albus

After he sent Harry back to his dorm with the admonition to _not go looking for the mirror again_ , Albus glanced in the mirror himself. The sight didn’t surprise him, it hadn’t changed since he had first heard the whisperings that Voldemort wasn’t as dead as everyone suspected. He saw a dead Voldemort, the bright, charismatic face of the sixteen year old Albus had once taught splattered in blood, neck bent unnaturally far back, shock on his face. The dead- even in this fantasy, he knew better than to think it would just be Voldemort dead- were lined up on either side, and Albus wasn’t surprised to see Harry Potter among the dead. He sighed—from disappointment or pleasure, it was impossible to tell, and the survivors on the Light side reacted to Albus as he walked among them, delivering alms to the poor.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone wants to read about anyone else, let me know and I'll see what I can think of.


End file.
